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Augusto Salazar Bondy

1925–1974

A first way ina deliberate simplification – the portrait says more

A dominated culture can only produce imitative philosophy – authentic thought in Latin America requires liberation first.

Placement

Latin American & Caribbean Philosophy · Latin America & Caribbean · Society & History, Epistemology

Peruvian philosopher: his 1968 question “Is there a philosophy of our America?” answered that a culture of domination produces only imitative philosophy – authenticity requires liberation.

Key ideas

  • Culture of domination
  • Inauthentic philosophy
  • Philosophy and liberation

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Influence

Influenced 1

  • Enrique Dussel

    influenced

    Dussel took Salazar Bondy’s thesis that philosophy under domination is inauthentic (¿Existe una filosofía de nuestra América?, 1968) as a starting point of liberation philosophy. A. Salazar Bondy, ¿Existe una filosofía de nuestra América? (1968); E. Dussel, Filosofía de la liberación (1977); SEP “Philosophy of Liberation”

    Evidence: AI draft

    Enrique Dussel › 1934–2023

Criticism

Mutual critique 1

  • Leopoldo Zea ⇄ mutual

    criticised

    Against Zea’s affirmation of a Latin American philosophy, Salazar Bondy held that it stays imitative while underdevelopment and dependence last (¿Existe una filosofía de nuestra América?, 1968). A. Salazar Bondy, ¿Existe una filosofía de nuestra América? (1968); SEP “Philosophy of Liberation” (Zea–Salazar Bondy debate)

    Evidence: AI draft

    criticised by

    Against Salazar Bondy’s verdict of inauthenticity, Zea argued that reflecting on one’s own situation is philosophy ‘without qualification’ (La filosofía americana como filosofía sin más, 1969). L. Zea, La filosofía americana como filosofía sin más (1969); A. Salazar Bondy, ¿Existe una filosofía de nuestra América? (1968); SEP “Philosophy of Liberation”

    Evidence: AI draft

    Leopoldo Zea › 1912–2004

Works

Position

In Is There a Philosophy of Our America? (1968) Salazar Bondy answered his own question largely in the negative. Latin American philosophy, he argued, had mostly imitated one European school after another without an original voice. This was not a lack of talent but the symptom of a culture of domination, shaped by underdevelopment and dependence: a defective society produces a defective, alienated consciousness. Authentic philosophy is therefore possible only together with the overcoming of domination – and can itself contribute to liberation by analysing its causes. Leopoldo Zea replied that reflection on one’s own situation is already authentic philosophy; the debate became a starting point for the philosophy of liberation.

Life & context

Augusto Salazar Bondy was born in Lima in 1925 and studied philosophy at San Marcos University, continuing in Mexico and Paris. Back at San Marcos he taught ethics and the history of ideas and wrote a major history of modern Peruvian thought. Under the military government of Juan Velasco Alvarado he helped lead the education reform of the early 1970s. He died in Lima in 1974, aged forty-eight.

Further main works

  • History of Ideas in Contemporary Peru (Historia de las ideas en el Perú contemporáneo, 1965)
  • Between Scylla and Charybdis (Entre Escila y Caribdis, 1969)

Appears in

Sources: Wikidata

As of November 2026 · Sources · Improve this page · How Agora is made

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